NP provisional registration

​Bylaw amendments — options for nurse practitioner roles ​​

Background

In early 2016, the BC Ministry of Health requested that the College of Registered Nurses of BC (CRNBC) collaborate with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) to explore options for nursing roles in advanced neonatal pract​ice.

​Bylaw revisions​​

Bylaw amendments are needed to temporarily accommodate the registration, as provisional neonatal NPs, of individuals who are educated and able to practise as neonatal NPs in other jurisdictions.

Changes to bylaw section 4.11 are proposed to require that this group of provisional NPs have met all of the following:​

successful completion of a nurse practitioner education program at the master's or doctoral degree level that is accepted, by a regulatory or licensing authority in a jurisdiction in Canada or the United States of America which registers, licences or recognizes the distinct class, category or specialty of neonatal nurse practitioner, as meeting the education requirement for registration, licensure or recognition in such class, category or specialty

successful completion of either the neonatal nurse practitioner certification examination offered by the National Certification Corporation and leading to the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner - Board Certified (NNP-BC) credential, or the neonatal oral and objective structured clinical examinations offered by the Ordre des Infirmières et Infirmiers du Québec

​if graduation from an accepted education program was more than three years ago, the applicant must have engaged in the practice of nursing as a neonatal nurse practitioner for a minimum of 900 hours over the three-year period immediately preceding the date of application under this subsection

The provisional registration of neonatal NPs under the proposed amendments will terminate on Dec. 31, 2024.

CRNBC will request that the Ministry of Health expedite the notice and filing process so that these amendments will be in effect by
March 31, 2017.